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Bind Us Together: Repentance, Ugandan Martyrs, and Christian Unity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2024
Abstract
Bind Us Together argues that in naming both the Anglican and Catholic Ugandans killed in the mid 1880s as “martyrs” a visible unity is implied that is useful in contemporary ecumenical theology. By recounting the story of the Ugandan martyrs told through both Catholic and Protestant sources, I am able to perform the Christian unity that I am arguing for. I also engage historical and theological obstacles to my argument. The historical obstacle is brought about by the mutual condemnation of both Catholic and Protestant martytrs by each side during the 16th century. The theological obstacle is the work of Ephraim Radner. Being indebted to Radner's understanding of repentance, I use John Paul II to overcome both of these obstacles. I conclude by discussing more explicitly the connections between the Ugandan martyrs and church unity showing that these martyrs provide Christians with language to speak intelligibly about Christian unity today.
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- Copyright © The author 2008. Journal compilation © The Dominican Council/Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
References
1 See Cavanaugh, William T., Torture and Eucharist: Theology, Politics and the Body of Christ (Oxford: Blackwell, 1998), 58–70Google Scholar.
2 “Buganda” is the historical name of the nation‐state now known as “Uganda.” Though it runs the risk of anachronism, I use these terms interchangeably.
3 An account to balance the literature on the martyrs that implies that violence was widespread against all Christians is given by Rowe, J. A. “The Purge of Christians at Mwanga's Court: A Reassessment of this Episode in Buganda History,” The Journal of African History 5, no. 1 (1964): 55–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
4 Faupel, John, African Holocaust: The Story of the Uganda Martyrs (New York: P. J. Kenedey & Sons, 1962), 217Google Scholar; J. A. Rowe, “The Purge of Christians at Mwanga's Court,” 57–58 seems to find Faupel's estimate reasonable. Faupel's work is a revision of an earlier account of the martyrs correcting mistakes and adding clarification. The early account was Thoonen, J. P., Black Martyrs (London: Sheed and Ward, 1941)Google Scholar.
5 Faupel, African Holocaust, 13.
6 Faupel, African Holocaust, 13–14.
7 Mackay, A. M., A. M. Mackay: Pioneer Missionary in Uganda, edited by His Sister, (London: Frank Cass & Co., 1970 [1890])Google Scholar; see also Kittler, Glenn ed., The White Fathers (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1957), 146–51Google Scholar.
8 Kittler, White Fathers, 153.
9 Maureen Tilley, “The Ascetic Body and the (Un)Making of the World of the Martyr,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion; for a similar insightful study on martyrdom and torture in antiquity see Clark, Gillian, “Bodies and Blood: Late Antique Debate on Martyrdom, Virginity, and Resurrection,” in Changing Bodies, Changing Meanings: Studies on the Human Body in Antiquity, Montserrat, Dominic ed. (London: Routledge, 1998), 99–115Google Scholar.
10 Tilley, “The Ascetic Body,” 473.
11 See Mackay, Pioneer Missionary, 110, 129–33, 170–72, and 231 for a few examples.
12 Mackay, Pioneer Missionary, 231.
13 For a list of Protestant martyrs including their baptismal state see, Faupel, African Holocaust, 209. Thomas, H. B., “The Baganda Martyrs, 1885–1887 with Special Reference to the Protestant Victims,” The Uganda Journal 15, no. 1 (1951): 84–91Google Scholar includes a list of Protestant martyrs but his work did not have the benefit of James Miti's Short History of Buganda who was a Protestant page during the persecution. Faupel's account relies on Miti's history and for his list of martyrs. Hence, Faupel is the most accurate synthesis of sources available that I know.
14 Ashe, R. P., Chronicles of Uganda (New York: A. D. F. Randolph, 1895), 70Google Scholar briefly mentions a “printing press” and “teaching” but only in passing. Ashe was an Anglican missionary.
15 Kittler, White Fathers, 164.
16 For a list of Catholic martyrs including date and place of death along with baptismal dates see Faupel, African Holocaust, 218–222.
17 Hanson, Holly E., Landed Obligation: The Practice of Power in Buganda (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2003), 61–87Google Scholar.
18 Faupel, African Holocaust, pp. 97–98, 108–118. For a primary source account, of Hannington from the Anglicans see Ashe, Chronicles of Uganda, 70–78.
19 Kittler, White Fathers, 174; Faupel, African Holocaust, 110–11.
20 Hanson, Landed Obligation, 68.
21 Hanson, Landed Obligation, 59–112; see also Wrigley, Christopher, Kingship and State: The Buganda Dynasty (Cambridge: Cambridge, 1996), 230–241CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Reid, Richard, Political Power in Pre‐Colonial Buganda: Economy, Society & Warfare in the Nineteenth Century (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2002)Google Scholar.
22 See Faupel, African Holocaust, 108–118.
23 See the quotations in Faupel, African Holocaust, 117–18. Miti is an important Protestant source for the history of these martyrs and late 19th century Ugandan history.
24 Mackay in Pioneer Missionary, Kittler in The White Fathers, Faupel in African Holocaust and Ashe in Chronicles of Uganda all put the matter in these terms.
25 Hanson, Landed Obligation, 25–53, esp. 42–53.
26 Hanson, Landed Obligation, 69.
27 Hanson, Landed Obligation, 61–71.
28 For accounts of how this took place see Hanson, Landed Obligation and Reid, Political Power in Pre‐Colonial Buganda. These accounts differ, but both agree that traditional Bugandan society was being eroded.
29 Faupel, African Holocaust, 82, 138.
30 Faupel, African Holocaust, 83, 137–38; Kittler, White Fathers, 176.
31 See Ashe, Chronicles of Uganda, 80–82.
32 Faupel, African Holocaust, 139.
33 Kittler, White Fathers, 179–81.
34 Kittler, White Fathers, 179–86; Faupel, African Holocaust, 139–56.
35 Faupel, African Holocaust, 207. What Faupel fails to notice is that his narration of Catholic martyrs depends on Protestant sources and how this may affect using the word “martyr.” My narration and argument attempt to take this into account.
36 See Faupel, African Holocaust, 198–99, and for lists of the martyrs 207–222.
37 Faupel, African Holocaust, 119–38.
38 Faupel, African Holocaust, 144–145.
39 Faupel, African Holocaust, 145.
40 Faupel, African Holocaust, 147–48
41 Faupel, African Holocaust, 149.
42 Faupel, African Holocaust, 150.
43 Faupel, African Holocaust, 150–51.
44 Faupel, African Holocaust, 152.
45 Faupel, African Holocaust, 152.
46 Faupel, African Holocaust, 168.
47 Faupel, African Holocaust, 168.
48 Faupel, African Holocaust, 142.
49 Faupel, African Holocaust, 168–69.
50 Quoted in Faupel, African Holocaust, 179.
51 Faupel, African Holocaust, 194.
52 Faupel, African Holocaust, 154.
53 Faupel, African Holocaust, 154–55.
54 Faupel, African Holocaust, 156.
55 Faupel, African Holocaust, 170–71.
56 Faupel, African Holocaust, 172.
57 Faupel, African Holocaust, 192–94.
58 Quoted in Faupel, African Holocaust, 197. Here, one cannot but hear echoes of Radner on the death of the church, and John Paul II's discussion of the primacy of prayer in ecumenism in Ut Unum Sint§ 21–27.
59 The oft given name “Wars of Religion” provides one obvious interpretation, but recently William Cavanaugh has challenged this. See Cavanaugh, William T., “A Fire Strong Enough to Consume the House: The Wars of Religion and the Rise of the State.” Modern Theology 11, no. 4 (1995): 397–420CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and “Killing for the Telephone Company: Why the Nation‐State is Not the Keeper of the Common Good.” Modern Theology 20, no. 2 (2004): 243–274CrossRefGoogle Scholar. I will use Cavanaugh's re‐narration below.
60 See Gregory, Brad S., Salvation at Stake: Christian Martyrdom in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), 315–41Google Scholar.
61 Quoted in Gregory, Salvation at Stake, 321.
62 Gregory, Salvation at Stake, 322.
63 Gregory, Salvation at Stake, 325.
64 For more on this see Gregory, Salvation at Stake, 329–339. As will become clear below I wish to complicate Gregory's (along with Radner's) reading of the 16th century with attention to socio‐political structures at work.
65 IIPaul, John, “The Ecumenism of the Martyrs and Christian Witnesses Points Out the Path of Unity.” Osservatore Romano 1700, no. 27 (July 4, 2001): 6Google Scholar; italics from original.
66 John Paul II, “Ecumenism of the Martyrs,” 6. I also think it obvious that many Protestants today would have little trouble using the language of “martyr” in reference to Catholics.
67 Radner, Ephraim, The End of the Church: A Pneumatology of Christian Division in the West (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998)Google Scholar.
68 Radner, The End of the Church, 133.
69 Radner, The End of the Church, 126–29.
70 Radner, The End of the Church, 124–126.
71 Radner, The End of the Church, 133.
72 Radner, The End of the Church, 133. Radner's reference to John Paul II is to the encyclical Ut Unum Sint.
73 Radner, The End of the Church, 133.
74 Radner, The End of the Church, 335–354.
75 Radner, The End of the Church, 354.
76 The passages Radner explicitly discusses are Ut Unum Sint, § 83–85.
77 Radner, The End of the Church, 59.
78 Ut Unum Sint, § 84; Radner, The End of the Church, 61.
79 Radner, The End of the Church, 61.
80 Radner put the matter to me in this way in personal correspondence.
81 One of the obvious reasons that some of John Paul II's works are not addressed is that some of them were published after The End of the Church. However, Radner does not deal with Tertio Millenio Adveniente where JP II takes an explicit posture of repentance. I think Radner does not discuss this work for a couple reasons. The first is rhetorical; Radner leaves this out to make his case more compelling in calling for repentance. Second, John Paul II's words are not gaining wide adherence. Thus, the late Pope's work is being “drowned out” by ecclesial division.
82 John Paul II, “The Ecumenism of the Martyrs,” 6.
83 See Accattoli, Luigi, When a Pope Asks Forgiveness, Aumann, Jordan trans. (New York: Alba House, 1998), 95–103Google Scholar.
84 IIPaul, John, homily given on the “Day of Pardon” 12 March 2000; cited in Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and the Faults of the Past. Vatican trans. (Boston: Pauline Books, 2000), 83Google Scholar.
85 John Paul II, Tertio Millenio Adveniente, 4 November 1994, §34; see also Memory and Reconciliation, 95–104.
86 See John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, 1995, §15–17.
87 Accattoli, When a Pope Asks Forgiveness, 55–79.
88 See, for example, Gonzalez, Justo, The Changing Shape of Church History (St. Louis: Chalice, 2002)Google Scholar who discusses how a new wave of scholarship is beginning to pay more attention to Spanish and Portuguese colonialism in the 16th century, which could yield differing interpretations of the Reformation, see pp. 42–44.
89 Radner, End of the Church, 122–23.
90 Radner, The End of the Church, 122.
91 Cavanaugh, “A Fire Strong Enough to Consume the House,” 398.
92 Cavanaugh, “A Fire Strong Enough to Consume the House,” 398–99.
93 Cavanaugh, “A Fire Strong Enough to Consume the House,” 401.
94 Cavanaugh, “A Fire Strong Enough to Consume the House,” 401. I do not wish to diminish the need for acknowledging the horrendous evil done during these times. I also do not intend to deny that repentance needs to be practiced. I only wish to shed further light on the historical situation by showing a weakness in many Reformation accounts. Furthermore, to say that doctrinal concerns were not primary is not to deny that they were operative in some fashion. In other words, I do not regard Cavanaugh's work as being what “really” was going in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; I am simply drawing his work into the conversation to fill in what I perceive to be gaps in an already complicated history. I do not deny that some persons were killed (primarily) for religious reasons at the time of the Reformation.
95 Cavanaugh, “A Fire Strong Enough to Consume the House,” 401–03.
96 Montaigne, “The Apology for Raymond Sebond,” in Michel de Montaigne: The Complete Works, Frame, John, trans. (New York: Knopf, 2003), 392Google Scholar.
97 I am indebted to William Portier for the putting the matter to me in this way. He has also said that what needs to happen in ecumenism is that Protestants and Catholics should study Reformation history locked together in the same room. Then, we could know more specifically what we need to repent for and ask forgiveness for. My hope and prayer is that this will happen.
98 Lindbeck, George, The Nature of Doctrine: Religion and Theology in a Postliberal Age (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1984)Google Scholar.
99 As I hope will become clear, I think of myself as working with this “method.” Also, for a wonderful account of practices as “grammar” to which I am deeply indebted see Kallenberg, Brad, Ethics as Grammar: Changing the Postmodern Subject (Notre Dame: Notre Dame, 2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
100 This is an appeal to “experience,” but it is a “social experience.” I am indebted to Terrence Tilley for the way I use “social experience;” see his History, Theology, and Faith: Dissolving the Modern Problematic (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2004), 151–52Google Scholar.
101 I was not raised Lutheran; I was raised United Brethren in Christ.
102 For an award winning account of this analogous Catholic “cultural” shift see Portier, William, “Here Come the Evangelical Catholics,” Communio 31 no. 1 (2004): 35–66Google Scholar. For an example of Protestants in this situation see Harmon, Steven “‘Catholic Baptists’ and the New Horizon of Tradition in Baptist Theology,” in New Horizons in Theology, College Theology Society Annual Volume 50, Tilley, Terrence W., ed. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2005), 117–34Google Scholar.
103 See Accottoli, When a Pope Asks Forgiveness, 55–79. To be sure, the reasons some Cardinals opposed John Paul's pronouncements were not sweeping and against repentance per se. Their major concern was the Pope's ecclesiological focus in discussing the sins of the Church's sons and daughters. However, John Paul went ahead with his pronouncement despite some opposition from the Cardinals, who included, at the time, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
104 I am indebted to Ephraim Radner for pointing this out to me in personal correspondence.
105 Of course, I do not intend to exempt Protestants from following John Paul's example. Both Protestants and Catholics must repent in order for the Ugandan martyrs to be rightly called such.
106 John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, §21–23.
107 I want to thank Bill Portier, Ephraim Radner, Dennis Doyle, and Brad Kallenberg for their comments on previous drafts of this essay.